XML related Interview Questions

What Is XML?
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language, and it is used to describe documents and data in a standardized, text-based format that can be easily transported via standard Internet protocols. XML, like HTML, is based on, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

What are Well-formed XML documents?
XML, is very strict about a small core of format requirements that make the difference between a text document containing a bunch of tags and an actual XML document. XML documents that meet W3C XML document formatting recommendations are described as being well-formed XML documents. Well-formed XML documents can contain elements, attributes, and text.

What is an empty XML element?
Elements with no attributes or text are called as empty XML element. Empty XML elements can be represented in an XML document as shown below:
<element/>

What is meant by XML document declaration?
Most XML documents start with an <?xml?> element at the top of the page. This is called an XML document declaration. An XML document declaration is an optional element that is useful to determine the version of XML and the encoding type of the source data. It is not a required element for an XML document to be well formed. Most common XML document declaration is shown below:
<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?>

What does UTF stands for?
UTF stands for Universal Character Set Transformation Format.

Should every XML document have a root element?
Yes.

Can an XML document contain multiple root level elements?
No, an XML document can contain only one root level element.

What is the use of XML attributes?
XML attributes are used for adding more information and descriptions to the values of elements,and the text associated with elements.

Is XML case sensitive?
Yes

How do you comment lines in XML?
You can comment lines in XML as shown below.
<! -- This is commented line in an XML document -->

What are XML namespaces?
Namespaces are a method for separating and identifying duplicate XML element names in an XML document. Namespaces can also be used as identifiers to describe data types and other information. Namespace declarations can be compared to defining a short variable name for a long variable (such as pi=3.14159....) in programming languages. In XML, the variable assignment is defined by an attribute declaration. The variable name is the attribute name, and the variable value is the attribute value. In order to identify namespace declarations versus other types of attribute declarations, a reserved xmlns: prefix is used when declaring a namespace name and value. The attribute name after the xmlns: prefix identifies the name for the defined namespace. The value of the attribute provides the unique identifier for the namespace. Once the namespace is declared, the namespace name can be used as a prefix in element names.

Why is it a good idea to use a URL as the XML namespace value?
Although the namespace declaration value does not need to be a URL or resolve to an actual URL destination, it is a good idea to use a URL anyway, and to choose a URL that could resolve to an actual destination, just in case developers want to add documentation for the namespace to the URL in the future.

When to use namespaces?
Namespaces are optional components of basic XML documents. However, namespace declarations are recommended if your XML documents have any current or future potential of being shared with other XML documents that may share the same element names. Also, newer XML-based technologies such as XML Schemas,SOAP, and WSDL make heavy use of XML namespaces to identify data encoding types and important elements of their structure.